Reporter's Notebook

Principals Survey Finds Support for Standards, Voluntary National Tests

San Antonio

Most elementary and middle school principals support national
reading and math standards as well as voluntary national 4th grade
tests in those subjects.

Those are among the findings from a survey of more than 1,300
members of the National Association of Elementary School Principals,
released last week at the group's annual conference here. But the
survey also showed that roughly the same percentage don't think those
tests alone will improve achievement.

"There is a prevailing view of educators that we don't want to be
held accountable," said Carole L. Kennedy, the president of the
27,000-member organization. "But we do, as long as we don't judge the
schools on just one test."

The annual survey, mailed to 3,000 randomly selected NAESP members,
summarizes what principals are thinking about current education issues
and trends. For example, nearly 80 percent of the respondents said
schools should offer full-day kindergarten programs. More than 60
percent agreed that their communities would benefit from year-round
school schedules, but fewer than 30 percent expressed support for
single-sex education.

About 75 percent of principals responding to the survey said parents
are less involved in their children's education than in the past. But
Ms. Kennedy, the principal of New Haven Elementary School in Columbia,
Mo., said she has doubts about those findings. Parents are showing more
interest in school activities and curriculum, she argued, but
administrators are still struggling to make parents part of the
decisionmaking process.

"If you teach parents how to use the system, then you're going to
have some very powerful allies," she said.

The principals in the survey also cited discipline as a big
concern--especially as it relates to special education students.

More than 80 percent of the principals said they spend too much time
on discipline, and 78 percent agreed that federal special education law
unreasonably limits their ability to manage disruptive or dangerous
special education students.

Parent involvement and discipline were recurring themes--and popular
session topics--throughout the April 12-15 conference. A crowd crammed
into a session led by Esther Wright, a former teacher and principal who
now runs a San Francisco-based consulting company called Teaching From
the Heart. She encouraged principals to look for the good qualities in
children, even if they cause problems in the classroom.

Her message focused on teaching children the consequences of their
actions, instead of constantly meting out punishments.

"Some of you are burned out because you think your job is to solve
problems," Ms. Wright said. "Your job is to teach people to solve
problems."

For the eighth year in a row, about 150 principals attending the
convention donated two hours of their time to answer questions and
advise parents who called the National Principals' Hotline.

School psychologists were also on hand to tackle questions that
might need their attention, and a special line was set up for
Spanish-speaking parents.

During her two hours at the phones, Elcendia Nord, the principal of
Milwaukee's Silver Spring Elementary School, received three calls from
parents of children with attention-deficit disorder. "I have a child
with ADD, so I can identify with some of the problems and frustrations
they are having," said Ms. Nord, who has been working with the hot line
for five years.

Another parent called with concerns over her 4-year-old daughter,
who was having night terrors, and a female student called saying she
was being sexually harassed by a male teacher. The teacher who took the
call urged the child to report the behavior to an adult
immediately.

Many of the calls from parents focused on conflicts with teachers or
administrators. And several volunteers said they have a sense that
parents sometimes want to talk through an issue before they actually go
to their own principals.

"A lot of people just need to be listened to," said Herbert Burrell,
the principal of Dacula Middle School in Dacula, Ga., who has been
volunteering for four years. "You have to be a good listener."